Paul Rucker photo by Wendy Johnson
Wayne Horvitz Named Jazz Journalists Association Hero
Pianist/composer/educator Wayne Horvitz was recently named Seattle’s Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalists Association. Jazz Heroes are “advocates, altruists, activists, aiders, and abettors of jazz who have had significant impact in their local communities.” The Jazz Hero awards, made annually on the basis of nominations from community members, are presented by their local fans and friends in conjunction with the JJA’s annual Jazz Awards honoring significant achievements in jazz music and journalism.
Along with completing award-winning and commissioned works, including his 21 Pianos and Those Who Remain projects, Horvitz is an active partner in Columbia City’s Royal Room, where he leads the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble and brings in regional and touring creative artists seven nights a week.
“We honor Wayne Horvitz as a Jazz Hero for continuing to create community, fitting his life to it through all his efforts with music and musicians in Seattle,” writes Steve Griggs.
Paul Rucker Earns Guggenheim Fellowship
Visual artist, composer, and musician Paul Rucker recently earned a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Often combining media, integrating live performance, sound, original compositions, and visual art, his work is the product of a rich interactive process, through which he investigates community impacts, human rights issues, historical research, and basic human emotions surrounding particular subject matter.
His largest installation to date, REWIND, garnered praise from Baltimore Magazine awarding Rucker “Best Artist 2015.” Additionally, REWIND received “Best Solo Show 2015” and “#1 Art Show of 2015” from Baltimore City Paper, reviews by The Huffington Post, Artnet News, Washington Post, The Root, and The Real News Network. This past fall, Rucker presented Stories From the Trees, an element from this exhibition, at the 2016 Earshot Jazz Festival. Using animation, new compositions, and live performance, the piece re-imagined horrifying vintage postcards of lynchings, in an experience that was poignant, riveting, and utterly wrenching.
This fall, Rucker’s work will be featured at the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University in its inaugural exhibition, Declaration.
“I’m honored to receive this generous award from this prestigious organization,” says Rucker. “I deeply appreciate this support and your continued interest in my work.”
Jazz Radio
88.5 KNKX hosts Saturday Jazz Matinee, Jazz Sunday Side Up, Ken Wiley’s the Art of Jazz, and Jazz Northwest, in addition to its weekday NPR and late-night and prime-time jazz programs. Full schedule and info at knkx.org.
Abe Beeson hosts The New Cool, Saturdays, 3pm, featuring 21st century jazz inspired and informed by the sounds of today, hip-hop, funk, electronic & punk rock, followed by Robin Lloyd’s Jazz Caliente, 5pm, where jazz meets Latin rhythms.
Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest, Sundays, 2pm, features the artists and events of the regional jazz scene. For JazzNW podcasts of archived programs, see jazznw.org.
90.3 KEXP, late-night Sundays, features Jazz Theater with John Gilbreath, 1am, and Sonarchy, midnight, a live-performance broadcast from the Jack Straw Productions studio, produced by Doug Haire. Full schedule information is available at kexp.org and jackstraw.org.
Sonarchy’s May schedule: May 7, Big Crinkly Trio, an ideal trio balance in a jazz music setting, with Pete Turner (drums), Doug Lilla (electric bass), and Jim Knodle (trumpet); May 14, Rahikka, meditative atmospheres through electronics; May 21, Paul Kikuchi’s Bat of No Bird Island, a new ensemble piece inspired by a family memoir and a 78rpm record collection, with Tari Nelson-Zagar, Maria Scherer Wilson, Eyvind Kang, Bill Horist, Stuart Dempster and Rob Millis; May 28, Vicki Ray Scot Ray, 20th century new music for prepared piano, slide guitar looping, and fine-tuned listening.
91.3 KBCS, features creative and improvised music on Flotation Device with John Seman and Jonathan Lawson, Sundays at 10pm. The Monday night lineup includes The Caravan with John Gilbreath at 7pm, Straight No Chaser with David Utevsky at 9pm, Giant Steps with John Pai at 11pm, and The Shape of Modern Jazz with Gordon Todd at 1am Tuesdays. Shows can be streamed anytime at kbcs.fm.
91.7 KSVR Mount Vernon, Doctor Dee hosts two nights of jazz, Fourth Corner Jazz, featuring recordings of live performance in Northwest Washington, Sundays, 6-7pm, and The Doctor’s Den, Mondays, 8-10pm.
94.9 KUOW, Saturdays, 7pm, features Amanda Wilde’s the Swing Years and Beyond, popular music from the 1920s to the 1950s. More at kuow.org/swing_years.php.
102.9 KLOI-LP Lopez Island, Mondays & Fridays, 3pm, Joy Spring with Gary Alexander, classic jazz and the Great American Songbook.
Hollow Earth Radio, hollowearthradio.org, Fridays at 6pm, biweekly, Black Roots Radio, hosted by Jordan Leonard, promotes jazz as a dynamic genre rooted in the Black American experience.
Hollow Earth Radio is Seattle’s freeform online radio station that supports the local music communities in the greater Pacific Northwest and tries to create an open, encouraging stage for underrepresented voices. More at facebook.com/blackrootsradiojl and hollowearthradio.org.
